The 8 Keys to Success for schools serving veterans To help draft the 8 Keys to Success, the Department of Education convened more than 100 experts to review approaches that could be scaled and replicated to foster veterans’ success on campus and via distance learning. A wide range of stakeholders participated in the discussions, including nonprofit organizations, foundations, veterans service organizations and, importantly, veterans who had recently completed postsecondary education in a range of disciplines. Best practices learned from existing programs provided the foundation for the keys to success, specifically best practices from the VA’s highly successful VetSuccess on Campus programs. WMU and two partner institutions, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Kellogg Community College, have served as a VetSuccess on Campus site since April 2012, when U.S. Rep. Fred Upton announced a decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to locate a VetSuccess on Campus program in southwest Michigan—the agency’s first such program in the state.
One of the latest on-campus resources for veterans was launched in the spring of 2012, when WMU became the site for a VetSuccess on Campus program, along with Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Kellogg Community College. Through this program, a Veterans Affairs official is stationed on campus to help student veterans with VA benefits, health care benefits, career exploration, job placement and other services.
Asset on campus Quada says the University’s efforts to be military friendly aren’t just about what WMU offers veterans. “They bring leadership. They can handle stressful situations. They can think quickly and problem solve quickly. They bring a global perspective, whether they have been deployed or not. They could have been stationed in Guam. So that enriches our campus and it enriches our student body,” she says. Todd, now 45 years old, says that he’s often the oldest student in class and sometimes older than his professors. But he says his military service—some 28 years—has been beneficial to him as a student.
1. Create a culture of trust and connectedness across the campus community to promote well-being and success for veterans. 2. Ensure consistent and sustained support from campus leadership. 3. Implement an early-alert system to ensure all veterans receive academic, career and financial advice before challenges become overwhelming. 4. Coordinate and centralize campus efforts for all veterans, together with the creation of a designated space (even if limited in size). 5. Collaborate with local communities and organizations, including government agencies, to align and coordinate various services for veterans. 6. Utilize a uniform set of data tools to collect and track information on veterans, including demographics and retention and degree-completion statistics. 7. Provide comprehensive professional development for faculty and staff on issues and challenges unique to veterans. 8. Develop systems that ensure sustainability of effective practices for veterans.
“Especially in the history department, a lot of the professors are interested in my past experience. “I’ve had classes that deal with the Cold War. I was serving during the Cold War. Tail end of it, but I was in it. There are times when I address a point that the professor is trying to make before the traditional-age students grasp it,” Todd says. During his years in the military, including 10 years active duty, Todd served in Desert Storm as a military police officer and most recently in Afghanistan, driving the vehicles that transport tanks to and from battle. You’ll find that most military personnel are model students, says Jonathan Jackson, a sergeant in the Army Reserve and a WMU junior.
combatants, he returned to campus a much more serious student. “I would credit the deployment for a big part of my maturation, that and getting promoted (to a sergeant from a specialist). I was responsible for the health and welfare of a handful of other soldiers. Having to deal with all of that helped me grow as a person, both in the military and out of the military,” he says. “It’s a natural thing for me to want to lead,” Jackson says. Since returning to the University in 2011, Jackson helped revamp WMU’s Student Veterans of America chapter, serving as president, initially, and now vice president.
“They go to class. They put their phones away and they have their notebook out and they are listening to the instructor,” he says.
He has held a Western Student Association cabinet post, is on the executive board of the American Medical Student Association and has represented WMU in various ways in the greater community.
Like Hebert, Jackson is at WMU for a second time. But he returned to complete a first bachelor’s degree, with his sights set on a career in medicine.
Jackson considers it an honor to serve his peers as a student worker in the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, an office that didn’t exist during his first stint at WMU.
Jackson says that after serving in Baghdad, where he worked as a medical lab technician in a prison hospital for enemy
“It’s tough to do on your own. It’s a team sport,” Jackson says. “I love being able to help other veterans succeed.” ‘Best for Vets’
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